I'm not sure how much longer the MAS can remain a sustainable entity for either Apple or developers.
The only advantage I see at the Mac App Store is that it ensures that you can install a given App across all your Macs and you'll be able to retrieve it from the Cloud whenever needed and not depend on a license code or something you might lose. Beyond that, I can see why the developers would be frustrated. That expiring certificate caused all kinds of havoc and Apple didn't even send out an email to its customers or ANYTHING. My mom was SO CONFUSED as to why her Solitaire game suddenly said it was damaged. For a company that has always gone by the motto, "It just works" it was a prime example of how Apple seems to be going downhill since Steve died. Apple is unfocused and trying to do too much with too few people.
The Mac App Store in general has very few offerings of any caliber and based on the best sellers, I don't think it does very well at all. I know I go to Steam instead to buy games because not only are they more responsive to issues, they also give you the Windows and Linux versions for free (invaluable if you have more than one computer/OS or ever want to switch platforms some day). They also make sure the Mac versions can talk to each other with PC ones for online play and saving game settings in the cloud (Steamplay) for many of their games and have HUGE sales at least twice year (I just got 80% off many titles last week). What does the Mac App store offer for gaming? NOTHING. Networking there uses their gaming system that NO ONE uses. If you bought Borderlands 2 from Apple, I feel sorry for you. It's hard enough to find someone near your level with the entire PC Gaming crowd available to play with on the Stem version; it must be quite lonely on the Mac Only setup with Apple. Plus I only paid like $11 for the entire game and every DLC made for it during a sale. I don't think it's ever been even CLOSE to that on the Mac App Store and I have the Windows and Linux versions for free as well!
I bought some Pinball Arcade titles from the Mac App Store when they had it first, but I ended up spending over $100 to get those and all the rest from the Steam Store because it gave me the Windows version (which has vastly improved lighting effects) for free as well. There is simply no contest. I don't think Steam ever had to worry about Apple or Microsoft's App Stores. They are far too greedy and far too disinterested to do even a fair job handling them. The only reason the iOS Store does well is that people have NO ALTERNATIVE STORE TO SHOP FROM (something I said all along is anti-competition). It's obvious by how well Valve does with Steam that GIVING A CRAP MATTERS!
Other service issues and problems with iOS and OSX I've noticed lately:
I just noticed that iTunes for OS X no longer tracks file changes like it did for the entire last decade. It used to be that you could rename a media file or move it to a different directory or whatever and as long as iTunes was running, it would update itself to the new location or name. This was very handy for organizing a media collection that would run on both iTunes and other media players (like Kodi). The Windows version always lost track of any changes. It made OS X look superior. I don't know of anything that tracks Finder type changes like that. It showed how integrated iTunes was to the whole Apple operating system. But iTunes 12.x apparently broke that.
I had to get a new media drive backup and I did some cleaning up and prep work for running FireTV units around the house and any change I made, iTunes now lost track and couldn't "locate" it. It seems to have no auditing mode (at least any kind of manual check now one) to check for any mass changes to the library so you might not even realize something is missing until you try to run it and a lot of people on the Apple Forums are having problems with large libraries going wonky/slow/crashing. I thought I was too, but it turned out to be that hard drive acting up.
Functionality is going to hell as well. Forget all the new OS X "flat" changes. iTunes changes have been bad enough (messier than ever instead of neater), but the new iPod/iPhone MUSIC APP sucks worse than any change made to iOS or OS X since the new "flat" interface. It's a confusing jumble of crap all over the place with buttons that you wouldn't guess were buttons since they are just text. You have swipe to see the album art because they would rather keep the lists of crap on the screen and have multiple tiny pause/play buttons in multiple locations (odd to say the least). Instead of nice buttons at the bottom to artist, album, etc. they moved it to the middle of the screen as a text word and so it's a royal PITA to get to what you're looking for in a hurry. Then they add "just added" and advertising along the top row at times (like Apple TV only on a tiny screen) just to push their crap. To top it off, it's all on a burning WHITE blinding background (where the hell is a "dark mode" for iOS? Oh yeah, the Scott Forestall GUI *WAS* a dark mode and buttons looked like buttons and everything was dark so you didn't blind everyone in dark room (like a theater) with it lighting everything up just to check the time.
I just tried to change my default mail app setting to Thunderbird (apparently it was still set to Mail.app but I didn't realize it since I hadn't clicked on a "Mailto:" link since moving to El Capitan). First of all, it's weird to have to open another application to set a default. Shouldn't that be in OS X preferences and not the Mail App?!?? It seems weird to ask another program to let it be the default. But then the worst happened. The change to Thunderbird wouldn't even stick! It kept switching right back to Apple Mail. I had to look high and low for a solution that ultimately involved logging out of iCloud (boy did it whine at me and threatened to remove all my contacts, calendar settings, etc.) and then reboot and then the change would stick, finally! I then logged back into iCloud and it acted like I had never used it before in my life (that's what "logging out" does???). Bugs, bugs and more bugs. Send Apple feedback and nothing gets fixed. It's awful. WTF is the point of feedback if you can never get any response (either by them fixing it or having someone contact you, if needed?) I think it all just goes straight to a bit bucket! Apple is SO RICH they could afford to have the best feedback and customer service responses imaginable, but they act like they are the Apple of 1997 and about to go bankrupt. "We can't contact everyone" (how about no one?) And THIS with supposedly 80% less customer complaints to begin with than Microsoft at a typical company IT Desk so it shouldn't be that hard to get an actual programmer to look at a problem. Instead, it goes to some idiot that knows NOTHING and they junk it (it sure seems like it).
